1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a character image processing apparatus having font data for outputting a character image in response to designation of a character code, and to a character image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printers currently in wide use have a memory for storing font data and, in response to designation of a character size, typeface and code, output the corresponding character image. Scalable fonts often are employed as the font data stored in the printer in advance. A scalable font enables a variety of sizes to be specified for a single typeface and makes it possible to output a character image of high quality. In order to speed up the development of character images, character images converted from the scalable fonts to bitmaps, i.e. pre-rasterized fonts, are stored in the printer permanently or temporarily in advance and are used together with the scalable fonts to output character images.
However, a pre-rasterized font is used only in a case where its typeface and size conform to a specified size and typeface. Thus, pre-rasterized fonts are not exploited satisfactorily. Consequently, typefaces and character sizes for which development of the character images is speeded up by using pre-rasterized font are limited to only some typefaces and sizes. Development at higher speed is not always achieved.